Trade Wins: Building a Dynasty

For the majority of you, you’re in the last few days of the fantasy trade season which is your last chance to upgrade your roster at the expense of your counterparts. In preparation for the upcoming deadline, we’ve looked at a number of topics over the last few weeks, including strength of schedule, negotiation tactics, bye week opportunities and ways to create urgency where there seemingly is none.

Of course in reality, some of you are looking much further ahead than the playoff weeks. You may have little chance of winning this year so your eyes are on 2014 or your team is so stacked that you can afford to build for next year while still competing this year.

So for dynasty leaguers out there, it’s time to prepare your team to be better than ever in 2014. I’m not looking at the elite players; after all, we know that Jamaal Charles and Adrian Peterson will be held tightly by their owners. But there are other targets that will reap benefits down the road and can either be plucked off the waiver wire or targeted in a trade.

Before we get into specific players, let’s talk a little more theory.

As an overriding principle, remember that you either want to be elite or terrible in dynasty leagues. Just like in the real-life leagues, being a middling team offers no advantage. Ideally, you want to bottom out for a year or two (maximum) and then contend for 2-4 years, and then start the process again. The Cowboys are stuck in that space as they can’t properly rebuild nor can they contend for a Super Bowl. Meanwhile, there are countless examples in other sports of teams that have it figured out – think Rays, Lakers, Red Wings, Colts, not Mariners, Bucks, Devils, etc.